More mobile-only American homes than fixed-only homes

The growing importance of mobiles is illustrated by the fact that 14% of American households do not have fixed phones; while only 12.3% have no mobiles. This trend which started in Finland has now spread to the bastion of the PSTN where for decades local calls from the fixed phone were free (both incoming and outgoing) compared with having to pay for both on mobile. Competition and bundles of “free” minutes seems to have done the trick.

From September 2006 to April 2007, the percentage of Americans in cellphone-only households for the first time overtook the percentage in landline-only households, according to Mediamark Research, a firm that has been tracking such data since the mid-1980s. The milestone is a natural consequence of two trends: a glacially slow decline since 2000 in the percentage of households with landlines, and a steep rise in the number of households with cellphones. Mediamark said 84.5 percent of households now have landlines, and 86.2 percent have at least one cellphone. The data was collected through in-home surveys at roughly 13,000 homes across the country.